Tartan Careers - Joey Krempa
Sport: Men's Basketball
Class Year 20-21: Senior
Major: Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering
Internship Year, Title, and Company
Summer 2020, Summer Student in the Daniel Heller Cancer Nanomedicine Lab in Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan.
Application process: I reached out directly to Dr. Heller in February of 2020 and accepted a role in late March/early April.
Why did this internship interest you: This internship provided an opportunity to research an extremely compelling subject related to a field of study I want to pursue as a career. The research project I worked on analyzed cancer drugs and other small molecules that have the capabilities of self assembling into immunonanoparticles. These nanoparticles can then be used as means for drug delivery or for biosensing. This was very interesting to me because it is a field of medicine I have always been invested in and one that is showing a lot of therapeutic promise in the future.
How did you complete the internship - remotely or on-site: Remotely.
Description of internship: I worked approximately 30 hours per week, mainly individually. I was assigned a project that analyzed disused small molecules/drugs that could be used as self-assembling nanoparticles. This was completed through deep literature and database searches. While I was not in the lab, I believe that literature/database research is extremely valuable. This form of research shows you how much you can learn from the science that has already been published, and how new innovations can grow from this knowledge. This method of thinking and research will be very valuable in medical school.
How it could have been different if not remote: If I were on site I would have conducted a lot more actual lab work rather than just strict literature or database analyses.
How did this internship shape your next move: My ultimate career goal is to attend medical school. This internship gave me extremely valuable experience useful in furthering that goal by teaching me more about the specific subject areas that I would like to pursue (oncology) and also providing me with meaningful professional development.